Hole #3 description on the Kingsley Club web site is here.
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| One of many greens at Kingsley where I proclaim, "This must be one of the best greens on the course." |
Hole #3 is a par 4
420 from the Gold tee
387 from the Black tee
After walking off the 2nd green, the golfer welcomes an opportunity to take a free swing to a wide open landing area. This mid-length par 4 offers plenty of room in the landing zone, but the preferred zone is not quite as wide. The left side of this undulating fairway is preferable. The golfer landing on the high side is rewarded with a clear view of the green from the fairway. The ball that strays to the right faces a blind shot from the fairway at best, and a fairway bunker shot or even lost ball if the shot is played too far right. The left side, while preferable, feels rather slim. Too far left will roll off the fairway into the rough and down the hill, so a blind approach is possible from either side.
This green is enormous (I think it is one of the three largest, with #4 and #13 being the other two if I recall correctly.) With the 2nd still haunting ones thoughts, the green feels and plays even larger than it really is - if that is possible. The day we played the pin was on the front right section of the green. The back right side of the green seemed as if it could be a different hole entirely, like a large double green. A missed approach slightly left leaves a reasonable shot at getting up and down (at least when the pin is where we saw it - playing a chip from the left side all the way to the extreme right pin could prove challenging.) Missing short and right will send the ball running even further right. There are two greenside bunkers that also come into play when taking on the right side of the green. The run up area to the left side is wide open, providing yet another opportunity to take advantage of the turf conditions. The ball will run here, and a low flyer may be the best option, as long as the ball doesn't leak too far right.
Not only is the green very large, but it is also wild and great fun. It is one of many greens around the course where I could imagine spending an hour or so piddling around with some putts and chips.
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| From the tee |
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| Another shot from the tee. The 4th fairway is in view on the far right. |
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| The approach from the left side |
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| The fairway from the lower, right side |
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| Approach to the front of the green. The green extends even slightly further right than the photo. |
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| The green viewed from the front. |
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| The massive putting surface as viewed from just off the left side of the green |
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| Looking back to the front left of the green from the far right |
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| The bunkers guarding the right side of the green |
"When building the green, I thought about having the green just be the right side of the green, which would be an adequate, although smaller, target. Problem was -- it just didn't have the variety and options available that the entire finished green did, so it became the entire landform and almost 11,000 sq. ft., but with two very different sides and attack modes. All of the basic green surface was intact, with the exception that I broadened and slightly raised the ridge to help shift running approaches around to the right half of the green for those not wanting to fire at it aerially past the bunkers and deep bowl and it works very well for that play.
The comments on the drive are all very good and accurate. Depending on which tee you are playing and the length of your normal drives, the very wide yet undulating fairway presents a number of issues, making it more difficult to choose the best line that will give you visibility and a decent angle of attack for your approach shot. The tee is slightly higher than the green in elevation (5 ft.) but the hole is essentially flat from tee to green along the spine, with 10-15' bowls folding off of each side, providing players with a play that is variably blind but playable.
The green has lots of room to the left and back for "safe" plays away from the bowl and bunkers and deep is often a good play for pins in the back center bowl that flows away from the line of play. Front pins are delicate if you get too fancy and try to get really close, often ending in the bowl to the right, whereas a play a little to the left will often come back down towards the pin or allow for a good approach putt, even though it is downhill.
Give me 200 acres of this type of land and you will have a great golf course -- it is really fine golfing terrain."
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